I thought of it when my oldest was quite young but didn't feel I could do a good job. Then when my second child was old enough for kindergarten I decided to try. I did that for 2 years. He really wanted to try public school though so for grades 2 & 3 I gave it a try. During grade 2 my son was appalled at how other students treated each other. He was labelled a tattle tale and had a hard time getting along. During grade 3 he was starting to act like the other kids so he could fit in. Oneday at the school his class was in the yard with his younger sisters kindergarten class. She fell down and some of his classmates laughed so he did too. That was the final thing that made me go back to homeschooling.

In hindsight there were teachers I wouldn't hire to babysit and most of his classmates I wouldn't have in my home.

Although my oldest still goes to public school (grade 10) I think we are a closer family for the homeschooling.

Anyway, thats my story. Whats everyone elses?

Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it.-Goethe

My daughter has been raised in a very passive home where peace is foremost for us. The first three years of school went by with little problem. Then all of a sudden she became very emotional about school. I even took her to a doctor thinking it was a physical issue, finally after a bunch of tests, we found no physical problem. She hung in there until October and then kept calling from school with various excuses about why she couldn't stay there. School guidance counselor even questioned her. By thanksgiving we decided to just homeschool. My husband always wanted me to, but I was reluctant because I wanted to go back to work to get ahead financially. But her well being came first, so here we are in our first full year of homeschooling. I learned a little about the ins and outs, but I have alot of questions. My daughter is thriving!!! She is a very happy child and I love being with her. Imagine that!!!People are so varied in their reactions..not many homeschoolers in this area.

When I first heard of homeschooling a few years before I had kids, I thought it would be *soooo fun* to teach my own kids myself.

Then when I met some public high school honor roll students when my first was a baby, I thought that if that's the best PS can do I'd need to teach my kids everything they'd need to know myself. After thinking about how hard it would be to fit all that in during evenings, I had the bright idea *Why not keep them home and have all the time I need to get it all in?

I'm so glad to save my kids from all the social garbage I went through in PS. The more I learn about what PS is like nowadays, the more anti-PS I am. The more I realize things I missed in my own education, the more hard-line I am on HS'ing.

I always wanted to homeschool, but was prevented from doing so by my ex-husband until this year.

My main reasons are as follows:

Religious reasons. Even though I had her in a Christian School that I liked, it was a different denomination from mine. This was just starting to become an issue...not a big one, but I could see it becoming more of an issue as she got older. And I don't want her in public school mainly for religious reasons.

Finacial reasons: It was becoming harder and harder to afford private school tuition.

Academic reasons: She has a learning disabilty and is gifted...a challenging combination. By homeschooling, I can taylor the curriculum to meet her needs.

I'm disappointed in the direction that public schools have gone and from what I've seen in the news it's only going to get worse - this entails much more than issue of shootings and bullies.

My son deserves the best education he can get and I intend to see that he gets that education, that his needs are not sacrificed due to red tape and absurd ideas such as that of children needing to be schooled with children of the same age.

Honestly, a year ago I was so against homeschooling. The only thing I knew about homeschooling was from my aunt who is extremely lazy and her kids are soooo behind, it's sad really. Then I watched a home video of my oldest in her kindergarten classroom where everyone was reading out loud and she was just looking down at her lap. She hadn't read a thing! I knew she was struggling because it would take over two hours a night for her and I to get through a 2 page reader for her homework and that included temper tantrums of frustration. Her teacher was a great teacher but I can only imagine how hard it is to keep 15 5-yr olds moving forward at the same pace. I decided to keep her home this year and started working really hard with her to catch up over the summer (we started the week after K5 graduation). Needless-to-say, the kid is brilliant. She has completed almost all of her 1st grade books in about 13 weeks. She knows how to do her work, she just can't focus which is why she was falling behind in class. At home I know immediately when she's "staring off into space" and I can pull her back. My other daughter, 4yo, wouldn't even be able to start school until next year but because we're homeschooling she's been able to start early. She went from not being able to recognize numbers to adding and subracting on paper in 13 weeks. Oh the incredible joys of homeschooling!